After bidding farewell to Teacher Briar, Axel followed behind Lacey toward Blueberry Academy.
At that moment, his gaze swept across Lacey.
Her purple hair hung down like a light mist, with a Poké Ball hairpin at the end near the back of her neck.
The hem of her school uniform skirt was ruffled by the breeze, her upper body posture upright, always holding a book with a purple cover in her arms.
No matter which school she was placed in, she would undoubtedly be the campus goddess.
Before Axel came to this fusion world, Lacey had even, by her own strength, made countless Pokémon fans willingly call Excadrill their father-in-law.
Just from this point, one could see how popular Lacey really was.
Suddenly, Lacey turned around, and Axel almost unintentionally bumped into her back.
"Axel."
"Hm?"
Lacey looked seriously at Axel, "Were you secretly looking at me?"
Axel nodded, "Yeah, your temperament is so good, it's hard for a normal person not to glance a few times."
Lacey was stunned. Clearly, this answer exceeded her understanding.
'Why are you so confident and upright about it?'
She originally wanted to make Axel flustered and then take the opportunity to challenge him to a battle.
But now Axel didn't even mean to argue…
'And, he actually complimented my temperament!'
A girl's thoughts were always quite jumpy. Seeing Axel, who seemed different from other students, she suddenly felt a little excited, "Then I'll let it go this time, but…"
"But what?"
Lacey straightened up and made a big X sign with her hands in front of her chest, "You're not allowed to peek at me again, okay? My dad says that's very impolite!"
"Definitely."
The two of them continued walking toward the school, and Lacey introduced the facilities of Blueberry Academy to Axel one by one.
"Look, over there is the Terrarium(Ecological Dome), but your accompanying teacher hasn't arrived yet. You have to sign the agreement before you can go in."
"Also over there, that's our school's ranking battle arena, you can participate in that."
"And the flying competition at the coastal plaza too."
"As long as you perform well, there are many rewards for all of these."
"Then thank you," Axel nodded and got straight to the point, "I heard from Raihan that Blueberry Academy has a composite metal that can make Duraludon evolve. How can I obtain that thing?"
Hearing Axel's question, Lacey again stopped walking and looked at him with a smiling gaze, "Sure enough, I knew from the moment I saw you that you came for Duraludon."
"It's easy for Raihan to get the composite metal because the Galar League paid a huge sum."
"But you're different!"
As she said this, a trace of craftiness flashed in Lacey's eyes.
"You came through the exchange route, so you must clear the school's ranking system and also defeat the Elite Four and Champion Drayton to get the composite metal."
"Drayton is the champion?"
Axel was a little surprised, but then quickly realized.
'It must be a timeline issue.'
In the Scarlet/Violet game plot, Kieran from Kitakami hadn't obtained the Widow-Form Ogerpon, so his personality changed greatly.
After returning to Blueberry Academy, he defeated Drayton and became the new champion.
But aside from the future Kieran, the others should be much weaker than in the game.
In the game, it's for the sake of advancing the story, but the real world doesn't have a storyline.
'Could the Elite Four of a school really be on the same level as the League's Elite Four?'
'If they were that strong, Team Plasma would've been wiped out already.'
Thinking of this, Axel turned to look at Lacey, "What level is your Excadrill?"
"Huh?", Lacey looked at Axel in surprise.
'Who asks others about their trump cards like this?'
'This is way too direct!'
"Seems like we haven't battled before, right? Isn't it a little impolite of you to ask like this?"
"Emmm… alright," Seeing that Lacey didn't want to say, Axel didn't push.
Anyway, this matter wasn't urgent. He planned to stay at Blueberry Academy for quite a while.
"Then can you tell me about the Terrarium?", Seeing Axel didn't continue pressing, Lacey blinked her big eyes and gently nodded.
"That I can tell you."
"The Terrarium has a very special ecological core, so we at Blueberry Academy can use the Terastal abilities unique to the Paldea region."
"And its area is huge, divided into the Savannah Biome, Coastal Biome, Canyon Biome, and Polar Biome."
"Wait!", Axel interrupted Lacey and asked a question he had long been wondering about.
"The other three areas are easy to understand. How did the Polar Biome appear? It's not that cold here, right?", Lacey looked up, a trace of contemplation flashing in her eyes.
"You're right! I never noticed that until you mentioned it."
"But I read the school's history. The Polar Biome has existed for a long time and doesn't require energy to maintain. Maybe it's because of Pokémon?"
Axel silently shook his head. The Terrarium of Blueberry Academy was so huge. To affect one-fourth of its area, at the very least you'd need a real Elite Four-level Pokémon.
And to influence it year-round, it might even take a legendary Pokémon.
Although the Unova region had the Ice Dragon Kyurem, its habitat was far away in the Giant Chasm, so it couldn't possibly influence Blueberry Academy.
As for other Ice-type legendary Pokémon, there didn't seem to be any others that liked wandering around.
Just then, Lacey's urging voice came from beside Axel's ear, "If you're interested in the Terrarium, I can take you to see it later."
"But right now, I need to complete Teacher Briar's mission, take you to eat, and also check out your temporary dorm."
Axel nodded. After all, guessing wouldn't help, better to take a look himself if there's a chance.
"Then I'll leave it to you, Lacey."
"You're welcome," Lacey once again took the lead ahead, "I'll show you the dorm first, since I already ate."
"According to Teacher Briar's arrangement, your dorm is in the staff area, not far from Raihan and Teacher Norton."
As she said this, Lacey suddenly blinked at Axel, "And today, a super popular Gym Leader will be moving in here too, maybe you'll get to know each other then."
"Blueberry Academy sure is lively," Axel praised with a smile but didn't think much of it.
Mainly because he'd seen too many "super popular Gym Leaders"… and beaten many of them.
Just yesterday, he'd beaten one, who was still being hunted down…
"Then get yourself settled. I won't go into your dorm. The cafeteria's just next door," Lacey waved at Axel and exited the room.
Axel inexplicably let out a sigh of relief.
Ever since Caitlin, this was the first time he encountered a female story character who wasn't too rich.
This feeling was really nice.
Just then, Lacey's voice came again from outside.
"Gym Leader Iono, you're here this early? How about I take you to your dorm?"
Axel: ????
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